Pictured is finalist Amy Vann, on right, with her parents David and Shirley Tabor of Union Township. Photo courtesy the Rotary Club of Cincinnati
A Batavia woman was honored for outstanding service as one of the finalists for the coveted Greater Cincinnati Jefferson Award.
Amy Vann created Give Like A Mother (GLAM), a volunteer movement to provide school clothes for low-income children.
The award ceremony on March 21 was hosted by The Rotary Club of Cincinnati and spotlighted three local finalists.
The winner of the local award was Bruce Kintner of Cold Spring, Ky., who founded Samaritan Car Care Clinic – a charity providing affordable car repairs to help low-income working families get to work and maintain independence.
As the local Jefferson Award winner, Kintner becomes a finalist for one of the five national Jefferson Awards to be presented in September in New York City by the national service organization Multiplying Good.
The national award, known as the Nobel Prize for community service, was founded in 1972 by Cincinnati native Robert Taft and former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
The other finalist for the local award was Hyde Park couple Joe Dehner and Noel Julnes-Dehner who started The Summer Reading Camp to help children build reading skills.
“This award program celebrates individuals whose service and imagination have a continuing impact on the community,” said Bill Shula of Bethel, who chairs the local Jefferson Award program. He said the award program shines a spotlight on outstanding people and programs in our own backyard.
“These things are going on in our community and most people don’t even know it,” he said. “We are honored to help identify and reward outstanding service.”
Vann’s GLAM provides clothing packs, each including more than 25 items, to outfit a child with school clothes for a week. Vann launched the program in 2018 as a personal effort, creating 250 clothing packets that first year. She recruited friends and family in following years. Six years later, GLAM distributed its 10,000th clothing packet and the organization has the equivalent of 3.75 full time positions plus 70 volunteers. Vann chairs the GLAM board and volunteers more than 80 hours a month.
The program has a special focus on families in the eastern rural counties, where clothing resources are severely limited, said GLAM Executive Director Jill Huynh of Loveland, who nominated Vann for the award.
This year’s winner, Kintner, started the Samaritan Car Care Clinic as an outreach effort at Madison Avenue Christian Church in Covington, Ky. He worked with social service agencies and forged partnerships with local garages to make affordable car repairs, helping low-income working families get to work and maintain independence.
(Edited for space.)